


and the walls came tumbling down

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, I just like talking about the apocalypse okay, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Rated t for cursing and just general violence, allison over here being the real mpv, she's been to therapy and she's not afraid to use it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26819527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: Prompt 4: Collapsed building!
Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947877
Comments: 21
Kudos: 283
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	and the walls came tumbling down

Five crept closer, Allison behind him. She asked quietly, peeking around the corner of a pillar, "How much further, do you think?" 

Five shook his head, "I don’t know. But I don’t like it." 

He glanced up at the ceiling of the building, "The hostages are supposed to be here, but I don’t see them." His eyes narrowed with suspicion as Allison moved forward, "Maybe. They said to meet us here and we  _ are _ early." 

Allison stepped out into the open. 

Five's mouth worked. He didn’t like how vulnerable she was out there, but he wasn’t going to escalate things by throwing himself into the fray. A moment passed, Allison examining the room carefully. 

Something was really wrong.

But he was too slow.  _ Too fucking slow _ . Five didn't get it until the building rumbled. He turned, a shout on his lips, "Allison!"

She looked at him, mouth opening, and the building fell. 

* * *

Allison coughed, voice raspy, "Five?"

There was no answer. 

She blinked in the darkness, the world feeling fuzzy and not quite right. There was dust in the air and she coughed, something sticky pulling at her hair. She brought a hand up to her head, grimacing as she felt blood there. 

The building had collapsed. 

Hopefully, Five had gotten out and he could tell the others where she was. 

She raised her hand slowly, feeling rock and rebar overhead. His fingers explored, carefully, finding a large metal bar bent sideways over her. It was probably the only thing keeping the rest of the building from collapsing on her. 

She tried to move, hissing as her ankle throbbed with protest. There wasn’t much room, but she could at least sit up. She felt around the ground, seeing if maybe she could find a way out. 

Her wandering fingers hit flesh. 

Allison bit back a scream. 

She forced herself to take a breath, trying to figure out what she’d grabbed. 

Her heart dropped into her stomach. 

It was a hand. 

A  _ small _ hand. 

The hand of a child. 

Allison cursed, "Fuck- Five?" She found his head, fingers finding his neck, checking for a pulse. It was there, weak and thready. His hair was wet, probably with blood. She knew enough not to move him at least- not that there was anywhere for them to go. 

The only thing she could do now was wait. 

Either a minute or an eternity passed in the darkness before she spoke, voice loud in the darkness, "You know, I told Claire all about you." 

Five didn't answer. She carded her fingers through his hair, "Even when I thought you weren’t going to come back I didn’t leave you out. She'd ask where you were sometimes and I’d tell her... I’d tell her that you were on a long journey- far away, saving the world. I didn’t..." she laughed wetly, "I didn’t know how true that was." 

She paused, only her breathing filling the suffocating silence. 

The air was still and thick. 

"You still haven’t met her yet. You can’t... you can’t die on us before you meet her, you understand?" 

There was a cough and shifting and then a weak, "I’ll try not too but I’m afraid it’s... out of my hands at the moment." 

Allison gasped, "Five? Five are you awake?"

There was a grumble and she could hear the scowl in his voice, "If it wasn’t me, I would be very worried." 

Allison shifted, "Do you... do you think you can move? I didn’t want to try it until you were awake." 

Five grunted and she heard the sound of cloth on gravel, "I... I can’t..." there was a modicum of panic in his voice, "I can’t feel... I’m..." his hand grabbed at hers and he grunted again, fingers tight around her own. He finally stopped panting, "Shit- let me-“ there was a flare of blue and Allison had to blink away the light, rubbing her eyes. 

Her eyes adjusted to the light flaring from his hands and she blinked, "Oh shit."

Five hissed, "Fuck. That's gonna be a problem." 

There was a rod of rebar pinning his leg in place. Five reached forward, pulling on it with bloodied hands, hissing as he felt it shift. Allison grabbed his arm, "Five, stop! What the fuck? Don’t touch it!" 

Five hissed at her, swatting her hand away, "I know! I just wanted to see if it’s pinned in. And it is. We'd have to cut it out of the rock- which is just our fucking luck."

He laid back, wincing as his head hit the concrete. 

Allison rolled her eyes and pulled his head into her lap. He eyed her warily. Allison spoke, "How long can you keep the light up?" 

Five shook his head, the light already fading, arms trembling, "Not much... not much longer."

There was a sputter as the light of his powers vanished and she felt him sag against her in the musty darkness. 

The void pulled at her eyes, the sound of breathing almost too loud in the silence, the crushing weight of tons of rock overhead adding to her growing panic. 

Allison swallowed, "We'll be fine, right?"

Five scoffed, his voice hoarse and somehow still reassuring, "Of course. We have people looking for us. Which is more than the last couple of times."

Allison frowned, instinctively looking downwards where he sat, despite not being able to see anything, "Wait, what?" 

Five shifted, "The apocalypse. Things weren’t exactly stable, Allison. I’ve had more than a few collapsed buildings on me. Except that I had no one coming to get me. I had to get myself out because I was the only one I could fucking depend on. This is better. This isn’t a hopeless situation." She could feel him shift, jaw working, "You’re not alone." 

Allison carded her fingers through his hair, something breaking inside her, "No wonder you have a hard time working with us." 

He sputtered for a moment, incredulous, before finally managing, " _ What? _ "

She could hear the bafflement in his voice. She began again, "You spent forty years on your own, right? You... you could only depend on yourself because we weren’t- we weren’t coming. I didn’t think about it- but no wonder you had such a hard time letting us in the loop about the apocalypse." 

Five grunted and Allison knew that if he could’ve put a stop to this conversation, he would’ve. Funnily enough, he always got so uncomfortable when they tried to talk about his time in the apocalypse. He liked to bring it up, but if they ever went more in depth, he would change the subject so quickly. 

Allison sighed, "I’m sorry, Five. I’m sorry we weren’t there for you."

His answer was quiet, "It’s not your fault." 

Allison found his hand in the darkness and squeezed it tightly. 

He squeezed it back. 

In the darkness, they held hands and waited for their family to come. 

(And they did.)

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is here: https://ford-ye-fiji.tumblr.com/


End file.
